The Candy Chronicles
by Sophie-Lou
Summary: Three key incidents where the Fey women celebrate Halloween together: Morgan with Misty, Mia with Maya, and Maya with Pearl and Trucy.


31st October 1978

Morgan Fey grumbled under her breath. The lanterns of Fey Manor had been lit and the young acolytes were heading out to the main village to begin that horrendously loathsome holiday known as "Halloween".

She recalled how her grandmother, the current Kurain Master, lamented this holiday for having sneaked its way into their family and culture. 'It is American commercialism at its worst,' she nattered on. 'And all for cheap, nasty tooth rotting candy! Revolting…'

Indeed it was, too! If anything sweet was going to touch Morgan's lips, it would be a spoonful of delicious jaw-droppingly large strawberry deserts.

She heaved another sigh and turned to scream into the house.

'Misty! Get out here now!' she snapped. 'You were the one who wanted to go into town and do this... coarse door-knocking phenomenon!'

The sulking sound of her eight-year-old sister rung out from within.

'But Mooooorgan!'

'Just hurry up,' the elder sister snapped again. At thirteen, she was getting too old for Halloween and resented her mother obliging her to accompany Misty into town to do a sweet round. There was always a party in the village as well for all the little girls. Morgan was dreading the whole evening.

(This is not becoming of a future Master, like myself. I can't believe I have to be doing this!) Morgan thought.

Finally, Misty came out.

Morgan raised an eyebrow. 'What are you supposed to be then?'

Her little sister was dressed as some sort of character from one of those atrocious samurai comics that she always asked their father to send her from the city. He promised to take her to see one of the many films one day, but Morgan told Misty not to hold her breath. 'Father will always let you down.'

'I'm Princess Kiko from "Samurai 'Til Dawn"!' Misty said triumphantly, giving her sister a twirl.

Her hair looked ridiculous; her stupidly overgrown locks were tied up into ox-horns with cartoonish flowers looped around them. Her yukata was bright, cheap and garish. Morgan couldn't believe she had to walk around with Misty dressed like this...

'Couldn't you have gone as something more... normal?' Morgan strained.

'Normal?'

'Like a cat or something?'

Misty blinked and then smiled. 'Actually, I did think about going as Samurai Kenta's friendly tiger, Akira. I had the bell she wears around her neck ready and everything... but the ears—'

Morgan held her hand up to silence her.

'Enough,' she said simply. 'Let's just get this over with.'

She picked up the lantern, which had been blessed by one of the family elders as a talisman against evil spirits. It was their only guard against them, seeing as Misty's stupid hair could not fit into a spirit warding hood.

'Come along, Misty.'

Misty sighed and nodded, following her sister out the main gate beyond the Kurain Rock.

The path way was very dim, the only light coming from Fey Manor behind them and the village itself in front. As they made their way down to the village, Morgan felt Misty slip her hand into hers. She instinctively tightened her grip on it, concerned that if she didn't, they would lose sight of each other.

They walked on in silence.

'Um,' said Misty after a while.

Morgan glanced down at her. 'What is it?'

'Um, thanks, sis,' was all the child said.

'"Thanks"? For what?'

'For taking me trick or treating even though you really, really hate it,' Misty said quietly, biting her lip. 'It... really means a lot to me.'

Morgan said nothing.

'Especially since...' Misty continued, her voice a little crackly. 'If you didn't do it... then no one else in the family would have let me go...'

That was true. Their mother hadn't forced Morgan to go, just asked her to take Misty. "She's been working on that silly costume for two weeks now."Mother couldn't take her as she was training. Grandmother would scold Misty for even asking. It was really up to Morgan to take her... so she had.

Morgan looked away, scowling. 'I-It doesn't matter. I wasn't doing anything this evening in any case.'

Misty smiled and squeezed her sister's hand tight, 'Still... thanks, Morgan!'

The elder said nothing, but smiled lightly as she squeezed her younger sister's hand back.

* * *

><p>31st October, 2007<p>

Mia lightly applied the glittery skin cream to Maya's cheeks. It would be the finishing touch to her "cosplay" of Princess Kiko. The remake of the 1970s film had only come out last month and since then Maya had been obsessed.

'Thanks for letting me stay with you, sis,' Maya said brightly, eyes closed as Mia applied a tiny amount to her lids. Usually Mia was dead against putting make-up on her baby sister but... it was Halloween. 'And for agreeing to take me trick or treating.'

Mia smiled, 'It's fine, Maya. This has been fun.'

Putting together their costumes had been fun. They had only decided to do it a few days ago when Maya arrived in the city to stay. Originally Mia had been invited to a party over at the student union of her campus – but when Maya told her that Aunt Morgan had (amazingly) given her permission to visit Mia, they decided to spend the evening together.

"We'll get matching costumes, go trick or treating and then rent some movies and pig out on candy!" Mia declared, an idea that Maya went crazy for.

'Are you sure you don't mind not going to that party?' Maya asked coyly.

Mia smiled, 'Don't worry about it. I'd rather hang out with you.'

She sometimes felt guilty about leaving Maya in the village all by herself. Oh, there were plenty of older female relatives to look after her but... she felt she owed it to herself to spend these few days with her sister. Watching movies, eating burgers and candy, doing girlie things…

'You're way cooler than all of them, anyway,' Mia winked.

Maya opened her eyes, pouting. 'Don't lie! College students are way cooler than me...'

The little girl sighed.

'I can't wait to be eighteen...' she said.

Mia bit her lips. There were times she wished she was Maya's age again, back when mother was still around. They used to spend their Halloweens together like this too. There used to be a big party in the village that Misty Fey insisted everyone take part in. They would eat candy, build a bombfire and tell scary stories.

Their mother loved Halloween.

It made Mia sad to know Maya missed out on all those good times with their mother. So, it was up to her to recreate it for her. It would just be two sisters instead of mother and daughter.

She leaned forward to kiss the child's nose.

Maya scrunched it up. 'What was that for?'

'Don't be in too much of a hurry to grow up,' Mia told her, smirking. 'Enjoy being a kid while you still can.'

Maya pouted again and huffed out her breath. 'Fine. It's not like I can speed up the aging process anyway...'

Mia laughed and pulled Maya to her feet. 'Let's check ourselves in the mirror.'

'Hold on!' Maya protested. 'I haven't put the glitter on you.'

'No way!' Mia teased. 'If I let you do it, I'll be caked in the stuff!'

The child sulked a little but watched patiently as Mia put the glitter on herself. Once she was done, they stood together in the mirror to admire their matching outfits.

'You look so cute, Maya!' the elder sister said cheerfully.

It had been fun playing with each other's hair, getting them into those stupid oxtails that the character Princess Kiko had. The bright colours of the costumes made Mia feel a little silly, but they looked sweet on Maya.

She just hoped people knew they were characters from "Samurai Til Dawn" and not a couple of Sailor Moon characters...

Maya looked sad.

'You look so pretty, Mia,' she said slowly. 'Just like the Princess. I don't look pretty at all...'

She folded her arms.

'I should have gone as the tiger...' Maya's voice trailed off.

Mia stroked her little sister's hair softly. 'Don't be silly, Maya. You are one of the prettiest and cutest girls I know. Hell, I can't think of anyone cuter.'

'You have to say that,' Maya smiled weakly. 'You're my sister.'

'It doesn't mean it's not true,' Mia said jovially, and she tapped that tiny little button nose. 'You are as cute as a button.'

She turned her to look at the mirror again.

'Come on, then,' Mia declared, deciding to bite the bullet and finally release their look onto the world.

She really did look daft dressed up in this electric pink, blue and yellow yukata but Maya had wanted them to match. And… she truly meant it when she said that Maya looked cute dressed up as the fictional princess. Dressing up Maya, helping her plan the costume… it had almost been like going back to being eight years old and dressing up a pretty little doll.

(This'll be a laugh,) she thought to herself.

'Let's show off our look to the punters,' Mia joked.

'Yeah!' Maya cheered happily, recovering from her moment of self-doubt. 'Time to "hustle" some candy!'

* * *

><p>31st October, 2019<p>

Maya decided not to dress up this year. It was a first; for as long as she could remember she had dressed up for Halloween and gone Trick or Treating. Even when she became too old to go begging for candy herself, she had taken Pearl and the other little girls of the village around before they headed to the traditional Halloween party at the village hall.

After she met Nick and began working in the city, she carried on the tradition. They always had a party to go to. Gumshoe often made a big deal out of the holiday, dressing up usually as Frankenstein's monster and gleefully handing out sweets to the neighbourhood kids. He would spend half his salary on sweets for the children alone, so after her aunt Morgan was arrested, Maya and Nick made a point of taking Pearl there to get in on the action and hopefully mingle with some children of her age.

There was always someone who was doing something for Halloween... but this year was different. If it wasn't Gumshoe, Larry could be relied on for a giggle.

Since Nick's disbarment, the world had got a lot smaller for him. He had closed himself off to a lot of his friends. Maya noticed that he was a lot blunter in his choice of words and frequently voicing the sarcastic views in his head – the ones only her psychic senses and Nick's own brain could hear – aloud. He was disillusioned and depressed. Maya was even starting to worry that he might start drinking…

Ironically it was Larry who saw him most frequently, along with Gumshoe and Maggey. Edgeworth and Franziska were often abroad and Maya herself was tied up in Kurain. But they kept her up to date with how Nick was doing, and that was often about how depressed he was.

'I think he misses you the most, pal,' Gumshoe told her frankly.

Their meetings were few and far between, which had made things hard for Nick. He had fallen into the same trap he had when she first left him after the second DL-6 case, when she returned to Kurain. He spent months upon months sulking and pining for her to come back. This was worse though – his personal and public life was in tatters and this first year had been the worst to live through. For that reason alone, Maya still tried to sneak off to see him whenever she could.

It wasn't just for herself or even Nick, but for Pearl too. He was the closest thing to a father figure she had, and being her guardian and surrogate sister-mother – as Mia had been to Maya herself as a child – she was determined to keep them both connected and happy.

Then of course there was the fourth addition to their little makeshift family...

'Miss Maya!' Trucy cried excitedly, preparing for the evening of Trick or Treating. 'You should wear your pretty kimono tonight!'

Maya blinked. 'Why? What's wrong with my normal Master yukata?'

'Because it's Halloween!' the girl pouted. 'You have to dress up in something.'

Pearl was pinned to the bedroom mirror; trying to affix a tiara to her hair like the one Princess Kiko wore in the new TV series that launched. It was titled "Zippy Samurai Dawn" – even Maya was starting to think the franchise was going a little over the top.

The tiny girl turned and nodded. Despite being nine months older than Trucy, she was still physically smaller. A true dainty Fey girl just like Maya herself.

'That's right, Mystic Maya,' Pearl agreed, and then cupped her face dreamily. 'You look so beautiful in your evening kimono, the dark blue one with the silver stars on it that you wore to festival last month... it's like a fairytale.'

'Like a princess!' Trucy added.

Maya stared at her. Her costume was a ye' olde time wizard outfit, complete with a fake beard. For a little kid, Trucy sure had a good sense of humour about herself. Unlike most little girls who wanted to dress up as the princesses they were likening her to, she wanted to go as Merlin, or at least… Maya assumed it was supposed to be Merlin.

She turned around to see Pearl digging through Maya's overnight bag, trying to pull out the dress. Maya blushed and rushed over to stop her.

'Gee, girls!' she said hastily. 'I-I only brought that dress because the elders arranged for me to go to a stupid state dinner thing. I really shouldn't—'

'But we want you to look as pretty as possible, Mystic Maya,' Pearl protested, still looking wistful. 'Just imagine how "en-rapi-tured" Mr. Nick will be when he sees you in—'

'I'll stop you right there, Pearly!' Maya immediately cut her off, laughing nervously. 'Seeing as we both know Nick will be going as he is,' which to her still felt like a costume, 'I think I should be able to as well.'

Pearl looked very disappointed. Clearly she had already painted the image of Nick just frothing at the mouth with love upon seeing Maya dressed to the nines in that lovely kimono. It was gorgeous and, to be honest, Maya was a little tempted to give in and wear it.

The reason she was reluctant was due to her fear of Nick feeling like the odd one out, like whenever he had gone with her to Samurai Con.

The "Little Wizard" sighed, folded her arms and looked away in thoughtful irritation.

'Ugh! I knew we should have made daddy dress up too, Pearly. We could have made him look really spiffy and then Miss Maya would have just fallen into his arms with a passionate sigh—'

'Not you too…' Maya sighed.

She picked up the two jack-o-lantern buckets for candy and handed them to the girls. Now they were both pouting, sad that she wasn't even entertaining the idea of dressing up pretty for their neighbourhood round of candy begging.

Maya's regular clothes looked like a cosplay in itself, so she saw no reason to make an effort. Tonight, it would be Nick who would stick out like a sore thumb.

Still... a little effort wouldn't hurt. Maybe if she did dress up a little pretty, it would cheer him up? Hell, he must have been expecting her to dress up because she always did. So, what if seeing her look different just made him even sadder?

She hadn't thought of that!

'How about I wear one of my kanzashi?' Maya quickly suggested, hoping to appease them both.

It was better than nothing. Pearl clapped her hands together excitedly, 'Will you let us pick it out for you?'

She knew they were going to pick the one to go with the blue kimono, which was beautiful. It also didn't go with Maya's Master yukata. Perhaps she should wear the kimono and… break it in?

'Sure,' she said simply.

Half an hour later they were ready to go. They had "worn" Maya down and she decided to wear the kimono. She was glad Pearl was there to help her tie the obi properly else she never would have managed it herself.

Poor Nick nearly choked when he saw her.

'What are you staring at, Nick?' Maya smiled knowingly.

He was wearing the look he'd had when he saw her in the Tres Bien maid costume.

'I was expecting some sort of Pink Princess cosplay,' he finally said.

'The girls insisted I wear this kimono,' Maya said simply. 'Blame them!'

The children looked thrilled at what they had achieved. They had even insisted on using some of the glitter for Pearl's eyelids and cheeks, and Trucy's beard to make Maya "extra dazzling".

To Maya's surprise, though, Nick had attempted to make an effort. He was wearing one of his old shirts, (tieless, of course), and dug out an old jacket. Clearly he had felt self-conscious enough not to look like a low-rent mugger tailing three girls on Halloween Night. He wanted to look… respectable.

Maya looked closer.

'Did you actually… shave?!'

She detected the tiniest of blushes on his cheeks.

'I… didn't want to look like a deadbeat,' he said simply.

Maya understood, although she was certain the girls were convinced he had done it to impress her. Maybe he had? No, she wouldn't concern herself with thoughts like that right now.

She just smiled. It was nice to still be doing this.

* * *

><p>31st October, 1978<p>

The sisters wandered back towards the manor. It was very, very late, well past Misty's bed time. Morgan just knew she would be cranky for training tomorrow. Typical.

Misty yawned and leaned her head against Morgan's arm.

'Sis?'

'What is it?' Morgan said irritably.

'Do you think one day...' and she yawned again, 'our kids will be dressing up for Halloween and... enjoying parties and things... like we did tonight…?'

She was so tired she was running out of words.

Morgan frowned, 'I certainly hope not! No daughter of mine will be rotting her teeth on sweets. But I just know your daughter would be spoiled with candy... I'll have to keep a close eye on them both: no daughter or niece of mine is getting fat on sweets and chocolate!'

'Spoil... sport...' Misty said sleepily.

She nearly stumbled over onto her face, but instead fell against Morgan. The elder sister quickly caught the young child to keep her up.

'Ugh, careful, Misty!' she scolded her, firmly but lightly. 'You might knock me over.'

'Sorry...' Misty whispered, happily. Her face was dreamy and content.

Morgan sighed.

She placed the lantern on the ground. The house was within sight now and she knew the path like the back of her hand. Blowing out the candle, she picked Misty up with a piggyback and struggled her way towards the manor.

'I love you,' Misty mumbled.

'Goodness sake, Misty...' Morgan muttered back.

A long pause followed.

'I love you too,' she finally replied.


End file.
